Reclosable bags are very common, especially in the food industry. Such bags are typically made to be reclosable via the use of a reclosable feature such as a resealable adhesive seal or a reclosable zipper. Such zippers can be opened and closed either by pressure or by the use of an auxiliary slider mechanism. Reclosable bags are a great convenience to the consumer especially for products where only a portion of the product is typically used at any given time. If these reclosable bags are packaged with a product prior to purchase by consumers, it is desirable to provide the bags with a tamper-evident feature to prevent such bags from being tampered with prior to purchase.
Bags, particularly in the pet food industry, need to be vented to allow air to escape upon stacking or palletizing the bags. A typical bag includes opposing top and bottom ends and a pair of opposing side seals. The top and bottom ends extend between and are perpendicular to the side seals. The top end of the bag forms a mouth through which a consumer can gain access to the product within the bag. Bag suppliers may make a vent or vents in the top end, bottom end, or opposing side seals of the bag for air to escape.
An example of a prior art vented reclosable bag is depicted in FIG. 1. The bag 10 includes a top end 12, an opposing bottom end (not shown), and a pair of opposing side seals 16 and 18. The top end 12 is formed by primary and secondary parallel heat seals 12a and 12b. To allow air to escape upon stacking or palletizing the bag 10, the primary heat seal 12a is interrupted by a central vent 20 while the secondary heat seal 12b is interrupted by a pair of off-center vents 22 and 24. Misaligning the central vent 20 relative to the off-center vents 22 and 24 creates a tortuous path that makes it somewhat difficult for bugs to access the product within the bag 10. The bag 10 includes a tamper-evident feature in that a front panel 26 of the bag 10 must be cut with a cutting tool along cut line 28 to gain access to the product within the bag 10. After opening the bag 10, the bag 10 is reclosed by peeling off a resealable adhesive tab 30 up to the arrows in FIG. 1, rolling/folding the top end 12 of the bag 10 two or three times, and placing the peeled-off adhesive tab 30 over the rolled top end 12 and pressing down firmly. The resealed bag 10 is depicted in FIG. 2. The adhesive tab 30 maintains the top end 12 of the bag 10 in rolled form to close the bag 10.
While the reclosable bag 10 in FIGS. 1 and 2 is vented and tamper-evident, the bag 10 is unnecessarily complicated in construction and difficult to operate. To break the tamper-evident feature and open the bag 10, a user requires a cutting tool such as a scissors and must be careful to cut only the front panel 26 of the bag 10 along cut line 28 and not cut the back panel. To reclose the bag 10, the user must perform the above-described steps involving careful digital manipulation of the adhesive tab 30 and the top end 12 of the bag 10. As for the vents 20, 22, and 24, they do allow air to escape upon stacking or palletizing of the bag 10. However, bugs are still capable of maneuvering the tortuous path created by the vents and entering the bag 10.